PROMETHEUS BOUND
PROMETHEUS
O holy sky! and ye, swift-winged winds!
All fountains of all rivers! Thou, that rollest
Laughter innumerable of ripple and wave,
O Sea, behold me! Mother of all things. Earth, 90
Behold me! Thou, great Sun, that seest all,
Bear record what I suffer from my peers.
Look with what rife torment riven,
Saw'd with agony, I am given
A race to run of measureless years.
For the Lord of the Blessed new-arisen
Binds me fast in a bitter prison,
A bond that shames and sears.
Throes that I have, that I apprehend,
Both I groan for, and ask what end,
What end to my pain appears! 100
Nay, my words wander: nothing can befall
But I have known it long ago. No pang
Comes unfamiliar. Wisest is to bear
The allotted burden with what ease may be,
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